


Haunted

by Kittenmommy



Series: Loki and Pepper Potts: Conversations, Drinks, and Other Really Bad Ideas [27]
Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Beware the nice ones, Gen, Haunting, Hel is a BAMF, Mild Language, Psychological Torture, Revenge, Supernatural Elements, Torture, When bad things happen to bad people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-19
Updated: 2012-09-19
Packaged: 2017-11-14 15:13:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/516709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittenmommy/pseuds/Kittenmommy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I hope she beats the <i>crap</i> out of him!” Tony says, sipping his coffee.</p><p>“Agent Barton already did that job,” Fury says.  “We had to give him a little break to heal up just so Hel can take him apart again.”</p><p>Tony shrugs.  “Gee, I feel terrible about that.”</p><p>“Hel will not beat him, Stark,” Loki says.  “She likely won’t even <i>touch</i> him.”</p><p>Tony frowns.  “What fun is <i>that</i>?”</p><p>Loki looks amused.  “Trust me, Stark… this will be <i>much</i> worse.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Haunted

**Author's Note:**

> _The Avengers_ belongs to Marvel.
> 
>  _The Sixth Sense_ belongs to M. Night Shyamalan (yes, I _did_ have to look up how to spell that!).
> 
> And I'm not making any money from this.
> 
> * * *
> 
> The idea for this just appeared in my head, and I wrote it all in one sitting. I'd originally thought to make it part of a longer fic, but I decided that it just might work better as a small stand-alone piece within the context of my _Loki and Pepper Potts_ series.

“I hope she beats the _shit_ out of him!” Tony says, sipping his coffee.

“Agent Barton already did that job,” Fury says. “We had to give the motherfucker a little break to heal up just so Hel can take him apart again.”

Tony shrugs. “Gee, I feel terrible about that.”

“Hel will not beat him, Stark,” Loki says. “She likely won’t even _touch_ him.”

Tony frowns. “What fun is _that_?”

Loki looks amused. “Trust me, Stark… this will be _much_ worse.”

“Awesome!”

“Looks like the fun’s about to begin,” Fury observes.

The three men watch on the monitors as Hel walks into the interrogation room.

* * *

The prisoner strapped into the metal chair looks up at the sound of the door. 

He’s naked and covered with fading bruises and other injuries. He’s got two fading black eyes and his nose has been broken but left unset.

When he sees Hel, he laughs raggedly.

“They sent _you_ ,” he rasps out hoarsely.

“They did,” Hel agrees.

“And what are you gonna do that SHIELD hasn’t already? Hex me?” 

He laughs again, slightly hysterically.

“Gonna turn me into a toad?”

Hel moves to stand over him. 

“No,” she says, frowning down at him. 

She reaches out and touches his face gently, and he flinches back automatically.

“Who has done this to you?” she asks.

He laughs again. 

“I don’t know…. I didn’t catch his name. He never said a single goddamn word… he never even asked me any questions!” 

He grins up at her, and she sees he’s missing a few teeth. 

“You must be enjoying this, right?”

“No, I truly am not. It troubles me to see such brutality.”

“You’re nothing like your dad, then. They showed us what he did to those men… they made us watch over the monitors, so we’d know what’s in store for us later.” He shudders despite himself. 

“We are different people, my father and I.”

“And yet here you are, in here with me. I don’t think you’re here to talk over old times, are you?”

“No.”

“And you’re not going to… to do the kind of things you dad does?”

“No,” she agrees, “for that is not my way. Though when our business here is finished, you may wish that Father had chosen to deal with you himself, rather than give you to me.”

He smirks. “OK, if you say so.”

“You are a doctor,” she says, and begins to walk slowly around the room. 

“Doctor Michael Samuels, at your service,” he tells her ironically.

“Yes, they have shown me your file.” She frowns. “As Doctor Banner has explained it to me, as a doctor you are sworn to help all in need, and to first do no harm.”

His eyes follow her as she walks.

“But the things you have done… in the Middle East… at a place called ‘Gitmo’… in HYDRA’s underground laboratories… well, you have done a great deal of harm to a great many people, haven’t you?”

He scowls at her, but says nothing.

She completes her circuit of the room – it’s a very small room, and it doesn’t take her long – and she moves to stand over him again.

He hates being naked and helpless, hates having to look up at her.

It never even occurs to him that she must have felt the very same way; no, as always, he thinks only of himself.

“Do you recall who I am?” she asks.

“Of course I do,” he says. “You’re Hel.”

“Do you recall _who_ I am?”

He shakes his head. 

“I’m sorry, I’m not following you here.”

“I am Queen in Niflheim.”

“Oh yeah? Good for you, Your Majesty!”

She peers down at him with hooded emerald eyes.

“Niflheim is the Realm of the Dead.” 

“If you’re talking about an afterlife, you’ve really lost me. I don’t believe in any of that.”

She moves away from him. As she speaks, she begins pacing again.

“Not believing it does not make it untrue,” she tells him.

He snorts. “Yeah, so for a price you’ll let me talk to my dead grandma? Is that it?”

She looks down at him. 

“You are assuming that she wishes to speak with you.”

He laughs at this.

“No, Doctor Samuels, I know not where your grandmother’s shade is… but I do know that it is not _here_.”

The prisoner makes a show of glancing around the small room. 

“Really? It’s not? Thanks for the tipoff!”

She stops pacing.

“There is a movie… Tony showed it to me once, and perhaps you have seen it too. It is about a little boy who can see the dead.”

“Yeah, that one with Bruce Willis. _The Sixth Sense_.”

She nods.

“So you see dead people?” He laughs again, mockingly. “Is _that_ it?”

“Do you recall at the beginning of the movie, when Bruce Willis was shot?”

“Really? You want to discuss film trivia? Sure, why not? It’s not like I’m going anywhere!” More mocking laughter.

“The one who shot Bruce Willis… before he shot him, do you remember what he said to him?”

“No. But I bet _you_ do!” 

She nods. “Yes. He said, ‘ _Do you know why you are afraid when you’re alone?_ I _do._ I _do._ ’.”

“And?”

She stops walking and turns to face him.

“The people you killed directly… the people who died _because_ of something you did or did not do… the ones who were tortured again and again, only to be healed by you and sent back for more until they died… the ones you tortured and murdered yourself. Do you know where all of these people are now?”

“In Niflheim?”

“No, Doctor Samuels. They are _here_. With _you_. Right now.”

He makes a show of glancing around. 

“Yeah. Sorry, not seeing them. But I can recommend a good shrink if you’re having hallucinations – ”

She moves close to him and grasps his chin in her hand, forcing him to look up at her.

“Now,” she says softly. “Open your mouth.”

He clamps his lips shut.

“I will ask you again: open your mouth. If I have to ask you once more, I shall wash my hands of you and allow Father to deal with you after all, however he sees fit.”

Samuels tries for a cocky tone: “You gonna kiss me?” he asks, opening his mouth as he would for the dentist.

“No.”

She leans in close, purses her lips and exhales slowly into his open mouth. He thinks he can see something shimmering in the air between them, but surely he must be hallucinating.

She releases him and steps away, nodding once in satisfaction.

He begins to moan.

“No,” he says, glancing around. The look in his eyes is sheer panic. “No, no, stay away! Stay away! _Stay away!_ ” 

He looks up at Hel with wild eyes. 

“ _What did you do to me?_ ”

“Ah. I recall asking _you_ that same question, once. Ironic, is it not?”

“Yes! Whatever you say! Tell me, _please!_ ”

“Though you thought to mock me, I _do_ see the dead, Doctor Samuels, for I am their Queen, throughout _all_ the Realms. And now – my gift! – _you_ will see them too.”

She moves away from him. She puts her hand on the door as if to leave, and then turns back briefly: 

“You will see them… _always_.”

“No… no… _please!_ ” he shouts at her retreating back. “Please, Hel, _don’t leave me here like this! Don’t leave me here with_ them _!”_

“Fairwell, Doctor Samuels. I do not think we will meet again.”

She opens the door and leaves, closing it behind her.

As she walks up the hall toward the place where her father, Tony, and Fury are waiting, Samuels’s screams begin in earnest.

She smiles to herself.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Reference:
> 
> “[They never even asked me any questions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empire_Strikes_Back).”


End file.
